LIFE+ CELSTAB Final Conference

German Sustainability Award & Congress, Düsseldorf Dec 6th-7th, 2018

The Final Conference for the LIFE+ CELSTAB project, within the scope of the LIFE13ENV/DE/001131 programme, was held in German Sustainability Congress in Düsseldorf and the project has been disseminated 2000+ participants.The LIFE+ CELSTAB project is presented at the German Sustainability Congress (GSC) on Dec 6 and 7, 2018 in Dusseldorf, Germany. P&G was present with a booth, operated by a multifunctional team of R&D, Sales and Communications. German Sustainability Congress (GSC) is the most important Sustainability Platform in Germany and a key platform in Europe.

The GSC is under the patronage of the Federal President of Germany and supported by the Council of Sustainable Development, a key advisor to the German Federal Government. It was founded in 2008 to encourage the acceptance of social and ecological responsibility by manufacturers, communes and the public, as well as to identify role models in this area. Today it is THE independent national congress and award show for leaders of sustainability in economy, community and research in Germany and beyond. The congress showcases thought leading initiatives, features discussions with key experts and fosters networking of changemakers with more than 2000 participants.

The P&G booth was located very prominently at the entrance of the congress area, participants had to pass by it on their way to panel discussions and keynote speeches. The aim was to show that P&G brands improve everyday life and at the same time we have a very targeted approach for making responsible consumption possible.Examples that prove P&G’s approach were several innovations and initiatives across the key focus areas and life cycle: Sustainable packaging Fairy Ocean Plastic, Fabric Care, Hair Care, AHP recycling, AGM from renewable resources (Pampers), FemCare CELSTAB, Ariel Pods.For deeper conversations at the booth we had a table with integrated touch screen display that was running a presentation on every aspect of P&G’s sustainability approach and the showcased initiatives: from Ambition 2030 and the goals we already achieved to AHP recycling, Life-Cycle thinking, and resource efficiency. We had the opportunity to meet Roberto Marinucci, VP Pampers Wipes & AHP Recycling, to talk about the collaboration and replication possibilities in the future.

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https://www.nachhaltigkeitspreis.de/kongress/

EDANA international Nonwovens Symposium, Rome – May 23rd-24th, 2018

EDANA International Nonwovens Symposium is attracting top professionals from across the nonwoven and related industries, to learn about the latest industry developments and network with the peers. The symposium focused on the following topics; Nonwoven industry trends, Product, process & material innovation, Hygiene and personal care wipes markets, Industrial, technical & automotive nonwovens, Sustainability.LIFE+ CELSTAB presented the Life Cycle Assessment results for the various menstrual pad design options and analysis of the main drivers for the calculated benefits for reduced resource use and emissions.

LCA shows that production of the raw materials for menstrual pads is the single most important driver for all relevant environmental indicators. The LIFE program is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action and a project was started in 2014 to reduce material use in menstrual pads. Objectives were to achieve reductions on material use and waste prevention (both in the range of 15-25%) and greenhouse gas emissions (10-15%). Current design options achieve the material use and waste prevention reduction goals and exceed the goal on greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved by redesigning the pad’s raw materials and optimizing the supply chain, while not compromising on performance and consumer acceptance.

Mid-term Workshop Towards the Next Generation of Absorbent System for FemCare Pads in P&G, Feb 7th-9th, 2017

Recent consumer modeling highlighted opportunities to improve consumer experience with FemCare pads beyond protection, in the areas of comfort and fit. The absorbent system, due to accounting for >80% of the materials used in the pad, was identified as a significant contributor to product performance beyond protection, also in the above areas of comfort and fit. The workshop took place in the creative prototyping facility at P&G Cincinnati, USA. As pre-work for the workshop, the multifunctional team of 12 people were grounded in the latest consumer understanding and models, as well as the current product design and absorbent technology to understand where the consumer tension areas lie.

As inspiration for the prototypes, several raw material samples were brought in and introduced by the team members. The objective of the workshop was to create inspirational ideas and first prototypes to visualize the idea or the benefit. During the workshop, the team was divided to four multi-functional groups, working on one of the prototype buckets each. After creating and sharing their prototypes, each sub-team moved on to a new prototype bucket, to create further prototypes building on the idea of the first group or generating new ideas. As at this stage many of the prototypes were not functional, an industrial sketcher supported the workshop, creating drawings of the “less visible” ideas as well as supporting visuals on the mechanism.

The ideas were summarized by capturing:

– Consumer Benefit the prototype will bring to her

– Technical Problem to solve- Mechanism(s) chosen to solve the Technical Problem

– Enabling Material and Design Choices to deliver the Mechanism

At the end of the workshop, all ideas were shared with management and key technology experts. CELSTAB absorbent system was re-defined to bring the best technology to the consumers in short term.

SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) Europe 22nd LCA Case Study Symposium, Montpellier (France) - Sept. 20th – 22nd, 2016

LIFE+ CELSTAB participated one of the most important international meeting of the sustainability organized by ‘Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’, which took place this year in Montpellier, France where scientists of every area had a chance to meet and discuss their research

Environmental sustainability benefits from the use of a new multilayer structure in menstrual pads. LIFE+ CELSTAB presented the initial LCA results for the various menstrual pad design options and analysis of the main drivers for the calculated benefits for reduced resource use and emissions. Menstrual pads are single use products. While creating improved hygiene and comfort, they use resources and generate consumer waste. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies on this product suggest that the sourcing and production of the raw materials used in a menstrual pad may account for up to 80% of the most relevant indicators. Therefore, in order to reduce environmental impacts, producers of menstrual pads need to collaborate with their suppliers to optimize resource uses along the supply chain.

An EU Life+ CELSTAB project has been started to ‘eco-design’ a new multilayer material concept and technology with the objective to meet consumer product, quality and industrial-scale production process requirements (absorbency, dryness, comfort, etc.) while saving 15-25% on materials and waste prevention and targeting a 10-15% saving on global warming.

Bayern Innovativ, Textil Innovativ, Fürth – March 1st, 2016

LIFE+ CELSTAB is presented in Textil Innovativ Congress in March 1^st, 2016.

We shared how to demonstrate the actions for mitigating the environmental impact (waste, resource efficiency and transport) in the absorbent products for feminine hygiene sector and how to develop the products through a combination of eco-design technologies, engineering optimization and integration of cellulose fibers.

The overall qualitative objectives of the CELSTAB were shared:

– Technical: to demonstrate that the updated innovative multi-layer material concept and technology can meet consumer product, quality and industrial scale production process requirements, improving the cost-benefit ratio, while at the same time drastically reducing the use of material, volume and transport costs and impact;

– Environmental: prove that the manufacturing and logistics related to the new disposal pads offer environmental benefits in terms of reduction of material usage (up to 25%), volume and transport. It implies consequent improvements in the overall life cycle performances: resource efficiency through less materials (15-25%), reduced transport (97.500 tCO2eq./yr saving);

– Policy and Market: to establish an industrial show-case in the field of disposal pads to influence the European market and policy makers to shift towards a more eco -oriented product development.

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